The Return of Christ

“The Mighty One, God the LORD, has spoken…God will shine forth. Our God shall come, and shall not keep silent; a fire shall devour before Him, and it shall be very tempestuous all around Him. He shall call to the heavens from above, and to the earth, that He may judge His people….”
Thus is God and thus His great and terrible presence! Who can stand before Him? When God comes to judge, it is so fearsome and terrible that all earth itself seeks to flee away. Look in the Minor Prophets:
Micah 1:3-4: “For, behold, the LORD comes forth out of His place, and will come down, and tread upon the high places of the earth. And the mountains shall be molten under Him, and the valleys shall be cleft, as wax before the fire, and as the waters that are poured down a steep place.”
Joel 2:1-2, 10-11: “…for the day of the LORD comes, for it is near at hand; a day of darkness and of gloominess, a day of clouds and of thick darkness, as the morning spread upon the mountains….The earth shall quake before them; the heavens shall tremble; the sun and the moon shall be dark, and the stars shall withdraw their shining: and the LORD shall utter His voice before His army: for His camp is very great: for He is strong that executes His Word: for the day of the LORD is great and very terrible; and who can endure it?”
Nahum 1:2-6: “God is jealous, and the LORD avenges; the LORD is avenging, and is furious; the LORD will take vengeance on His adversaries and He reserves wrath for His enemies. The LORD is slow to anger and great in power, and will not at all acquit the wicked; the LORD’s way is in the whirlwind and in the storm, and the claouds are the dust of His feet. He rebukes the sea and makes it dry, and dries up all the rivers….The mountains quake before Him, and the hills melt, and the earth is burned at His presence, yea, the world and all who dwell in it. Who can stand before His indignation? and who can endure the heat of His anger? His fury is poured out like fire, and the rocks are thrown down by Him.”
Or look in Revelation:
Revelation 6:14-17: “And the sky vanished like a scroll that is rolled up, and every mountain and island moved out of its place. And the kings of the earth, and the great men, and the rich men, and the chief captains, and the mighty men, and every bondman, and every free man, hid themselves in the caves and among the rocks of the mountains; and said to the mountains and rocks, Fall on us and hide us from the face of Him who is seated on the throne, and from the wrath of the Lamb: for the great day of His wrath is come; and who can stand?”

So when God comes to judge, we see this universal motion away from His descending presence. The earth itself and all the people of the earth are desperately fleeing, melting away, hiding, shrinking from the face of this God. They cannot stand before Him. They are terrified and ashamed and utterly undone. The violent, cataclysmic reactions of the whole earth show how awesome His presence is and how fierce His judgment is. Who can stand before Him?!?!?
But there is a group of people there. There is a group of people that is not running away or hiding. This group of people is facing this descending Mighty God. They do not appear frightened; in fact, the look on their face is one of joy. Their eyes seem to be riveted on His face, and gladness, not despair, radiates from their countenance. They are eager for Him to set foot on earth, and they are not at all distracted by the rest of the world rushing past them to get away from this coming King. See, this group of people has been waiting for this moment for years and years. This group of people has long loved and served this King. He is their heart’s Desire, and now He is coming to them. They have no need to dread because they know the King, and O how their hearts burst with adoration and praise as He comes down. They can stand before Him (a thought the vast majority of creation shudders at), and they can look on His face. And they do. And as they gaze, they are satisfied. This is what they have always wanted.
Who is this group of people?
They are those who have been washed in the blood of the Lamb of God, those who believed in the Gospel of Jesus Christ. For all who have faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, that group of people is us. We can stand before God at His coming, and it does not have to be a dreadful thing to us. In fact, it ought to be the culminating moment of all our hopes and desires, because we will finally see His face.
I realize that for Christians on the earth today, it will not happen quite like this, because we will be raptured (another glorious meditation: caught up to meet Christ in the air…), but I hope you get the concept and that it impacts your life.
Would you be one of those fleeing in terror or one of those gazing in adoration?
If you would be one of those fleeing, please, do not stay in that state. Come to Christ, believe Him, and learn to love Him and His glorious appearing.
If you would one of those able to stand, is your life evidencing a joy in and a passion for knowing Him and seeing His face?
Does the thought of seeing His face today bring a lump of longing anticipation to your throat or uncomfortable shame because you are not loving Him and living for Him?
Does seeing and knowing Christ really fill all in all for you here today? Because if it does not, then His coming will not thrill you the way He intends it to.
Christ is Everything! How little we/I live like that. To my shame, I chase emptiness and futile selfish imaginations! But when I am truly seeing Christ and walking with Him, there is nothing that I long for more deeply than the day that I will see His face and be with Him…the day when I will be in the midst of a group of people that stands before Him, while all the rest of the world is hiding in terror, and with that group I can begin to sing the new song…the song which I will sing forever: “Thou art worthy…”

A Thought on Confession

“I ought to confess the sins of my confessions - their imperfections, sinful aims, self-righteous tendency, etc - and to look to Christ as having confessed my sins perfectly over His own sacrifice.”

- Robert Murray M’Cheyne